Humber has to have had the biggest free fall after a perfect game though right?

Loses his job as a starter two months later, gets put on waivers at season's end and gets picked up by the worst team in baseball.

I assume the guy I can't think of from Oakland who's grandmother fought his battles for him is pretty close.

Dallas Braden did have an injury, though, perhaps more than one at the same time. I think arm problems is something the A's teach their minor leaguers because they bring up so much pitching talent and almost all of it goes down to injury.

I don't think there has ever been a perfect game in the majors that could be called a fluke. You have to go out there for nine innings and not let a hitter reach base. You have to deal with the pressure. Over your career you might not appear to be good enough to have such a great game, but Humber was drafted so high and given so many opportunities because teams believed he could be good enough. And Humber had been a pretty good starter for much of the 2011 season. I think it's entirely possible that Humber would have been a better pitcher in 2012 if he hadn't pitched a perfect game.

But he pitched such a great game, that he shouldn't have needed to pitch as well to prove it wasn't a fluke. Sometimes players play way above their career norms. That is the nature of professional competition. In many, many games players play well above or below their career norms. One night last October, Barry Zito hit a solid RBI single against Justin Verlander. That's what competition is all about.